Prices of a Revolution
by Dutchman02
Summary: Set at the end of the Manga/FMA:Brotherhood. "The explosion could be felt kilometers from Central city, the giant cloud of smoke could be seen from even further. Amestris has a heavy shock to overcome." Royai


**A/N: **Set at the end of the FMA:Brotherhood Anime and the Manga. This first chapter may be slightly depressing and _will_ contain character deaths.. For there will be deaths in war and victories come with sacrifices.

Insert spoiler alert: [[[This story has spoilers for the manga chapters up until the latest chapters as new details will be released that fit in the story, they _will _be added. This also counts for FMA: Brotherhood (which follows the manga) ]]]

There will be some slight changes though, for some small things didn't fit in the story. You'll notice them eventually: just keep the changes for truth and don't fight them. Unless, of course, you see a huge change... I don't have a photographic memory and might've forgotten something.

Furthermore, my native language isn't English, it's Dutch, so there must be a lot of mistakes in grammar/spelling. If you'd be so kind to point them out to me, I can make this story more readable. (If you want to BETA, it's even better, but I won't ask for that)

Enjoy...

**Chapter One: In Memoriam**

The only indication that she was still alive were the signals her brain received from her nerves, everything hurt. Her eyes were open, or at least, she thought they were open, but they were staring into nothingness. The world around her was completely clad in a cloud of darkness. The sun was only hidden partially behind the moon, but even so, no light made it through the thick clouds of dust that hung in the air.

_It would be so easy to close my eyes and rest,_ she thought for a moment, _close your eyes and take a long, well deserved slumber._ But then, she noticed: the earth had stopped shaking. The fighting had stopped. Suddenly she jumped on her feet. "Colonel!" Her raspy voice echoed throughout the empty empty, her shout falling on deaf ears. It hurt to talk, for her throat had been cut and still hadn't healed, despite Mei's alchemy. She was scared, the last time she had seen her superior he was swallowed into the darkness and shortly thereafter the ground started shaking and the building had collapsed all around her. The ground had split and for a second she'd seen the solar eclipse through the enormous crack that had swallowed a big part of Central. Then the the black hole that, she assumed, had swallowed her Colonel exploded in fire and dust.

"Colonel!" She screamed again, but then started coughing because of the material that hung in the air. Riza Hawkeye had to find her superior, that was all she could think. She had to find him or his body. The stoic blonde haired lieutenant stumbled through the rumble toward the direction she knew the black sphere had been. She saw with her hands and she was glad she didn't see with her eyes. She felt the limbs of the people that had helped them in their fight. And with limbs, she meant severed limbs, burned limbs and shattered pieces of flesh. Occasionally she felt something wet and sticky with a distinct smell of iron, salt and rust. Blood.

She then found a flashlight which, surprisingly, was still in working order. The light flickered on and it had a difficult time finding its way through the dense dust particles. The ray of light landed on the battered face of the vengeful Ishvalan, Scar. She moved to check his vitals but then the light uncovered the lower part of his body... the lack of lower part to be exact. Suppressing a gag reflex she turned around, but the image still reflected in her mind. Scar's torso had been severed from the waist down, separating his legs from his body. Where his legs were, she couldn't see, but it was clear that, as blood seeped out of the large gaping wound, that he was death.

The small bundle of light fought against the smoke as it uncovered more of their surroundings. The mangled bodies of the chimera's didn't halt her desperate movements in order to find her colonel. While she hoped that their sacrifices weren't in vain, that they had killed the ones responsible for many massacres the past hundred years, she hoped even more that her colonel was alive. He just had to be!

The dust was starting to settle down, small rays of light broke through the cloud and illuminated her surroundings. She dropped the flashlight and held her hand for her mouth when she saw the complete carnage. Her comrades had all fallen to their enemies. Scar, Lan Fang, Jerso and Zampano. Their mangled bodies, hardly recognizable. Lan Fan was staring with empty eyes, her head separated from her body.

_Why am I still alive_, she thought. _How? _When so many had fallen. The petite lieutenants body ached all over, but she had to continue. Find him or find his body. Rescue him or confirm his death.

As she moved closer to the source of the explosion, she noticed the crater. She had seen many explosions rip through stone and earth. Hand grenades, dynamite, artillery and even Kimblee's alchemy, but none were this devastating. She couldn't see the center of the crater for there was no light and the dust cloud was thick, but she could see the sky. This explosion had ripped through the layers of earth and gave the Homunculi hideout a sky view. It had blast a hole in Central. She could see the rubble of buildings, homes and offices that had been destroyed in a single flare. Lieutenant Hawkeye saw people, crushed underneath the roofs that had once protected them. Trapped in cages of death.

"Mommy!" She heard a child screaming from the building to the left of her. She hoping to hear where it came from. "Where are you?! Mommy!" The officer heard the child again.

"Hold on!" She found the partially standing building, which looked like it had glided down the slope formed by the crater. It was a miracle that the building hadn't collapsed. Through the broken windows she looked inside, there she saw the child, trapped between cupboards, chairs and tables. "Hold on, I will get you out!"

The small girl looked up, tears in her eyes. "Mommy?" Her eyes lit up. _She must think I'm her mommy. She can't see clearly through her tears and the smoke._ "There you are, Mommy! Help-" The building cracked and collapsed before the lieutenant's eyes, burying the child beneath heavy concrete.

"No..." Hawkeye dropped on her knees. It's Ishval all over again. So many innocents. How many homes were here? How many fit into this crater? At least five hundred, maybe a thousand. And because of the rebellion everyone was ordered to stay inside, so in each house there would've been someone. She was already doing the math, she couldn't stop herself.

_I must not go down this road of thoughts! I have a mission... Lets just hope it all wasn't in vain. _

She stumbled towards the center of the enormous crater. More and more dust and ash settled down on the ground, burying everything in layers of gray and brown. The closer she got to the center, the less rubble there was. It seemed as if everything simply had vaporized. The smoke was starting to clear. And there, about fifty meters in front of her, they were.

The first thing she saw was Edward's red coat. "Edward!" The lieutenant gripped the boy with her two hands. "Breathe, Edward!"

The young State Alchemist's eyes opened and he blinked a few times. "Hawkeye?" She smiled softly in response. "Where... where is Al?" His eyes wandered, from Hawkeye's face to his still metal arm and leg and finally to the gray medieval armor. "Did it not work?"

Suddenly the armor shook. "Hey! Let me out! It's dark!" Edward jumped on his feet and opened the body armor. The naked body of Alphonse Elric fell out of the steel plated body. He was thin as a straw, but it was his body. "Brother!"

"We did it, Al!" Edward cheered.

Riza Hawkeye moved forward to look for her superior. She found him, laying on his stomach, his military uniform partly burnt. "Colonel." She cautiously called out to him. "Colonel Mustang!" No response. The petite women knelt down next to the wounded alchemist and turned his body around. "Wake up." She shook him softly, almost desperately. "Wake up... Roy!"

"H-hawkeye?" The black haired man's eyes opened. "Is that you? Really you?" She recognized the disbelief in his voice. He lifted his trembling hands and searched for her face. "It's you..." He smiled softly, but his lieutenant was confused. "You're... you're crying." To her own surprise she was.

"These are happy tears, Sir." They were. She was openly crying out of relief and happiness.

"Help me sit up, please." She did as he commanded and the colonel leaned against her as he sat, unable to support himself. He was facing the two Elric brothers, who were happy for a brief moment. "Did it work? Does Alphonse have his body back?"

"How do you mean, sir? Can't you-" Then it clicked. There was always a price for human transmutation and Colonel Mustang performed it, or it was preformed on him. She turned his head so he was facing her. His eyes were looking at her, but not seeing anything, as if he was looking at something behind her. "Sir, are you-" He confirmed her suspicion by nodding. Riza tried to hold the sob inside, she couldn't believe the price he too had to pay. Her colonel, comrade and friend who had a vision for his country could never see the outcome his visionary efforts.

"Shh, it's alright." Riza felt a pressure on her shoulder and she was hugged by her superior. "Now tell me, did Al get his body back?"

"Y-yes, sir." She composed herself. This was nor the place nor the time to break down. They needed to find medical care, at least, Mustang needed it. His uniform was bloodstained, probably his own blood too. "Sir, we need to find you some medical care." Her colonel refused and informed him that there were five sacrifices, the homunculus Greed and a little girl named Mei on their side.

"Find them first. Make sure they're not needing more immediate care." She started to protest, he was his priority. "That is an order!"

She found Mei first. The little girl was buried beneath a few rocks that must've been inside the sphere before it exploded, since any material from the outside had evaporated into thin air. She wasn't seriously hurt though, just unconscious. Edward and Al had stopped celebrating after they saw the state of their surroundings, their victory and accomplishment seemed bittersweet right now. Maybe the price paid was too high.

"Mei, wake up." Alphonse said weakly, his body was undernutritioned but after seeing the damage, he had to help. That was how he worked, no matter his own state, he had to help. Riza knew that that, years from now, they would be remembered as heroes. Edward soon found Izumi too. She was wide awake yet, her hands placed on her stomach.

"I- It-" Edward smiled at her and Riza looked up too. "I'm healed!" Riza couldn't believe it, Izumi was healed, her organs were restored but her colonel was blind. How? And why? She would get her answers later, right now she needed to find the others: Van Hohemhein and Greed.

She found them together. "It's all over." Everyone heard him whisper. Edward and Alphonse walked toward their father, the living Philosophers Stone. "For me. For you all, this is just a milestone halfway the route." Hohenheim looked towards his sons, a soft smile graced his features. He looked exhausted and beaten, but content. Greed lay at his feet, his body deteriorating, he too hadn't survived the battle.

"Dad..." Alphonse hugged his dad. "What are you saying?" But Edward understood. He had seen the fight between 'God' and his father. He knew that the souls in the Philosophers Stone simply were energy sources that would burn out eventually. Edward wondered how many souls he had burned.

"My time is up..." Hohenheim was still smiling. "I'm going to see your mother again." To everyone's surprise, Edward hugged his father two. It was a sweet picture, two boys midway their teen years, hugging their father. The taste it left was fowl, they wouldn't see him again for many years.

"Goodbye, Dad." The father smiled at Edwards words.

"Just remember. I love you, sons."

"We do, too." Alphonse replied. "And we will." Edward completed. Riza could swear she saw Hohenheim smiling and crying at the same time. He was happy, he could rest and be with his beloved. His body fell apart in the arms of his sons. In a bright red flash, his body disintegrated. Nothing remained except for memories.

_End chapter one_


End file.
